


Texas Drought

by fullmoontonightt



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Human, Erica Reyes is a Little Shit, Fame, Famous Derek Hale, Getting Together, Hale Family Feels, Idiots in Love, Insecurity, Interactive Fiction, Jealous Derek, Love at First Sight, M/M, Misunderstandings, Music, Musician Derek Hale, Musician Stiles Stilinski, Mutual Pining, Pining Derek, Reality TV, The Voice, lol so this is like super random but I had to write it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:21:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmoontonightt/pseuds/fullmoontonightt
Summary: Derek's eyes widen when he does finally recognize the song, not believing anyone would seriously audition with it.“Sweat baby, sweat baby, sex is a Texas drought. Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about.”Derek Hale, famous lead singer of Månen, isn't too sure about being a judge on The Voice. But when he hears the most unique voice behind his red chair, he can't help but fall for its owner straight away. Love at first voice? Is that a thing?
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 26
Kudos: 429





	Texas Drought

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is "interactive" (lol way too big of a term for it but yeah). You can actually listen to the music that is being sung in the story by pressing on the titles/artists. Make sure to open the links in a seperate tab tho ;)
> 
> Possible trigger warnings:  
> > a lot of swearing  
> > mention of a spiked drink  
> > mention of child abandonment

The girl, or well he hopes it’s a girl, hits a painfully out of tune high note from behind him. He can’t help but frown at the sound of it, already knowing the camera’s will zoom in on his disgruntled expression. Looking over he sees Erica release a groan and his lips curl upwards into a slight smirk. 

Erica seems to be cursed to pressing her button too early, going off the vibe and the start of the song the contestant was doing. To be fair, the girl hadn’t started off too bad. Pretty okay voice, clear knowledge of the song, but then she’d started the high notes. It’s the exact reason Derek doesn’t turn until after the chorus. He chuckles slightly as there is another one of the high pitched wails. Erica sends him a glare as she noticed his amusement.

The girl finishes the song and his and the other chairs turn automatically. The girl turns out to be older than he expected. Dark brown hair, tied down in a wavy ponytail, wearing a blouse with birds on it stuffed into a knee length pencil skirt. 

The director’s assistant motions at him and he rolls his eyes at having to start it off. He tries to not look too judgemental at the girl. “What’s your name?” 

“Jenniffer, Jennifer Blake.” She answers nervously. She’s sort of cute Derek supposes, in a small town kind of way. He bites his lip as he knows he’ll have to be mean to her.

That’s one of the reasons he was asked on the show at least. With American’s sweetheart Allison Argent, saucy Erica and the boyband twins Ethan and Aiden as judges, there was no harsh, mean addition to the panel. Well, Erica could be mean but somehow she played it off as charming. The Voice had wanted a grumpy judge who contestants would be a bit afraid of. And grumpy was what Derek was known for. 

Derek hadn’t really been up for doing the show in the beginning. It’s really not his kind of scene. He wasn’t a huge fan of being famous in the first place, that had never been his intention when they started _Månen_. He’d just wanted to make music with Isaac and Boyd. But then their music had taken off, radio stations picking up on it, and they started filling big venues. Madison square garden, London stadium, Amsterdam Ziggo dome. So Derek became Derek Hale, famous lead singer and rock artist. 

He doesn’t mind the fame too much, he knows how to play the spotlight to his favour. He knows when to smile, when to flirt and when to be real. Yet people still perceive him as harsh and rough around the edges. Which is not something he is necessarily opposed to. As Laura said, it’s good for a rock artist to be a little angry looking. Still, it’s one of the reasons the spotlight is not something he likes being in. People always seem to think he’s a jerk.

But of course Laura would not take him refusing the Voice. Laura was their manager, which meant that her speech had been a mixture of his sister bullying him into accepting and his manager forcing him in for exposure. Gruntly, he’d accepted and he can’t lie: he actually sort of enjoys it. Listening to singers who have genuine passion and hope is not something he minds doing at all. It’s the tv aspect he struggles with.

“You don’t have an awful voice, but your high notes were completely out of order. Like a kid learning to ride a bike but falling over.”

He sees the smile mellow down on her face, a flash of hurt visible, and he internally sighs. It isn't that he minds critiquing people, it’s what they’re paying him for after all. Also, there’s no point in giving someone false hope with fake compliments. He just hates seeing contestant’s sparkling happiness at making it through change into disappointment at his comments.

Erica was the only one that had turned for Jennifer, so it didn’t take long for the girl to leave the stage, briefly hugging her new coach. Erica sends him a tired look. “Why does this happen to me? Why do I get falling off her bike girl?”

Derek’s lips curl into a small grin as their chairs turn back around. “Like I said Reyes, don’t press so soon.”

“But she sounded so good at the start! I just wanted to beat you.” She pouts her red lips. 

He sends her an amused look. “How about you beat me by actually getting good singers?”

Erica was definitely the coworker he got along the best with. Of course that made sense seeing she’s Boyd’s girlfriend and Derek had known her for years. He would say they’re friends even. He likes having her on the show, it had really made him more comfortable in his role and helped him along the way. Even though she was more of a pop singer herself, she also had a passion for rock music, and they tended to go after the same kind of contestants voice wise. Erica had blown this into a full on rivalry and Derek was honestly enjoying the extra layer of competitiveness. 

Having a singer chose the coach they would prefer to work with was the most interesting part of the show for him. It said a lot about the person that was on the stage and their reasoning. Derek had noticed more serious people picked him, apparently him turning his chair was viewed as rare and therefore as a compliment. Derek wouldn’t say that himself, though he did notice he was perhaps more critical than his fellow judges. Never pressing early.

The sound of an electric guitar breaks through his thoughts and he nods along with the first few riffs. His eyebrows furrow together as he realises he is unsure of what song this is. The melody is increasingly familiar but he has never heard it played on an electric guitar so it takes a while for him to place it. His eyes widen when he does finally recognize it, not believing anyone would seriously audition with this song.

“Sweat baby, sweat baby, sex is a Texas drought. Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about.” the male voice starts behind them and Derek’s mouth drops open in disbelief. Not only is this song choice ridiculous, but the guy is actually really good. Where in the original version the lines are sung quite dry and stated as facts, this guy has giving them a bit of an edge.

“So put your hands down my pants and I'll bet you'll feel nuts”. Erica positively cackles next to him, the sound filled with utter glee as she presses down on her button excitedly with both her hands. 

Derek can’t help the grin that’s slowly becoming plastered to his face. Looking to his right he can see the other judges chuckling too, also still not sure of what is happening, and he shakes his head, trying to concentrate on the guy’s voice. 

It’s really pleasant to his ears, smooth and almost velvety to listen to. Derek recognizes the rough edge in there too, already hearing this guy is probably good at the high screaming notes. To be fair, as soon as he heard the guy’s voice he was thinking about how it would sound when screaming for other reasons. The voice seems to be dripped in sex and whilst the song choice might have something to do with it, Derek is slightly affected by it. This never really happens to him, actually feeling the emotions that the contestants try to convey with their audition, but here, with this guy, he can feel it happening.

And well yes that emotion is sex, but it shows that the guy knows how to use lycrics to his advantage and how to portray the message of the song. Which are qualities singers need. Or well, he tries to convince himself that is why he is impressed, but the way he’s biting on his lip at hearing this voice speaks for itself.

“You are inclined to make me rise an hour early, just like Daylight Savings Time.” Derek hears the teasing tone the guy takes on, putting humour into his voice whilst remaining the smooth seducing atmosphere. It sends the hairs on his arms upwards. 

He presses his button on instinct, having heard enough to know this guy is good, and no longer being able to keep his curiosity locked down. He wants to see what this guy looks like. 

The pale, lanky man is not what Derek expected at all. He can’t help but stare at the guy, who’s walking across the stage confidently, carrying his mic with him. Derek can immediately tell the guy is pretty and not only in a small town kind of way. He’s wearing black tight jeans, a hole on the knee, and a basic maroon V-neck on top of it. The shirt accentuates the definition in the man’s arms. Derek swallows visibly. Then he looks up at the guy’s face, which was a mistake, as the guy is looking right at him, eyes bright and suggestive as he sings his next line.

“You and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals. So, let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.”

Fuck. This kid is going to be a problem. 

Derek looks down at his notepad, grabbing his pen to pretend to be writing some stuff down, but in reality he knew he needed to distract himself from the guy on the stage in front of him. The man was simply gorgeous and the heat of the look he’d received had made his jeans sit suspiciously tight. It had been a while for a random person to affect him like this and Derek wants to curse his body for picking this particular one.

Daring to look back up, Derek sees the guy is now smiling dirtely at Erica - who’s smirking right back at him. There’s a stage presence to the guy as well. He seems to have the audience eating out of his hands, filling up the stage with movements that should look ridiculous but somehow don’t. He can see Allison and the twins have turned their chairs as well, all recognizing the great voice in front of them.

Their eyes meet again, the guy staring daringly his way, and Derek attempts to look unimpressed. The guy seems to call his bluff, shaking his head with a smirk on his lips as he finishes the last note of the song, making it more hoarse and dirty than necessary. Derek pretends like it doesn’t do things to him.

“Well hello sweetheart,” Erica basically purrs, her lips still hooked in a smirk, “why don’t you tell us who you are.”

The guy sends her a pleased grin, cocking his head. “I’m Stiles, twentytwo years old from California.”

“What kind of name is Stiles?” One of the twins, Derek still has trouble keeping them apart and isn’t really bothered enough to learn, asks with a laugh. 

The boy - Stiles apparently - just sends him a tired look, making Derek think it’s not the first time he’s heard that. “It’s just my name.”

“Well anyway, Stiles,” the other twin says, making the name sound weird in his mouth on purpose, “you have a great voice. You obviously know how to work with it, so we’d be excited to see what kind of music would fit you best.”

Stiles nods, the movement friendly but nothing more. It’s obvious the twins are not going to be his choice and for some reason that pleases Derek. Then Allison clears her throat as she goes next, a sweet smile on her lips. “Well Stiles, I’m impressed. I’ve never heard [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xat1GVnl8-k) sang like this before and I think you made all of us laugh. Even Derek.” 

Stiles gets a grin at his lips at that, eyes flicking over to Derek briefly, and Derek tries to remain a neutral face as their eyes connect. 

“I really loved the way you made use of your voice and when I turned you seemed at ease on the stage as well. There’s a few things I heard that we could work on together, but I think you’re mostly already well aware of the things you can do.” Allison smiles, dimples becoming visible in her cheeks. “I’d love to have you in my team.” 

Derek swallows, suddenly realizing he is next in line to give Stiles his feedback and try to persuade him to come onto his team. Usually it doesn’t really matter to him whether contestants come onto his team. Obviously he wants good singers under him, but he feels that there needs to be a sort of mutual connection as well. If people feel more comfortable with a different coach, Derek feels no disappointment when they chose them instead. He knows his reputation, knows people perceive him as harsh and he expected not many people pick him for that reason. Turns out it is actually a reason for people to pick him.

Next to the whole him being Derek Hale thing. Sometimes he forgets how well known he actually is.

Looking up at the stage, his throat tightens as he finds Stiles’ eyes already on him. There’s some sort of suggestive sparkle in them and his eyebrows seem to be daring Derek to give him his meanest shot. Derek awkwardly clears his throat, ignoring the pull in his stomach, and tries to appear cool and professional. “You have an impressive range on your voice Stiles. The song choice was ridiculous though.”

Stiles huffs out a breath that could be perceived as laughter. “I like ridiculous.”

Derek continues, ignoring the statement. “I think your voice would be good for many non ridiculous genres. I think you could captivate audiences when you go down a more serious route.”

Stiles’ eyebrows shoot up before he rolls his eyes, an amused grin at his lips. “Noted. I’ll do the moody Derek Hale look next time okay?”

He can’t help but let his mouth fall open. Contestants never really spoke back to the judges, often too afraid to accidently disrespect one of them. He hears Erica cackle loudly from next to him, moving in her seat as if she wants to pat Stiles on the back for his reply. Her eyes are sparkling with enjoyment as she looks at him. “Anyone that can give Derek Hale shit is someone I want on my team.”

Stiles laughs at that, bubbly and warm, and Derek feels his stomach tighten at the sound of it.

“I think you have a great voice, you obviously have humour and you’re really good looking. All the makings of someone I’d love to have under my wing. So come join me batman.”

Stiles smiles at that, his confident exterior dropping slightly, revealing him to be genuinely flattered by the compliments. Derek feels his heart stutter as he realizes the guy is going to pick Erica. 

And when he’s proven right, Derek can’t help but frown at the fact that for the first time since filming the show he really minds a contestant not picking him.

\---

After the whirlwind that are the auditions is over, they get to actually meet and connect with the contestants in their team. Derek was excited for it, wanting to get to know what these people were all about. So far he’d only seen them in their respective auditions, but he really doesn’t know much more about who they are. Considering the next round is the battle, it might be good to learn some more about them. For the battles he’ll have to put two members of his team up against each other. The winner gets to go through to the live shows. It’s not a bad concept, having two people with similar voices battle it out. 

Taking a sip of his still hot coffee, he walks into the studio the next morning. Traffic had been a pain, even with the Camaro, and he sighs when he sees the crew and interns rush across the room in a hurry. Somehow the crew was always panicked, always behind on schedule. It made the set feel hectic and crowded, two emotions Derek didn’t do too well under. Especially when his morning had already been shit.

“Mr. Hale,” a young girl waves at seeing him, clearly a part of the crew judging by the red polo she’s wearing, “we’ll be ready to shoot your team in an hour.”

Usually Derek would take this time to find some calm and peace. Read a bit or maybe work on some new lyrics. Yet, his eyes automatically wander to the big door with his name on it - the room he knew his team would be in. They were probably all nervous in there. Seeing it’s the start of the real show now and they’ll have to work with Derek, someone they’ve not ever really spoken to before. He frowns as he realizes he doesn’t want their first conversation to be all business in front of the cameras. 

Walking into the room, he finds his team lying chatting on the large red couches. Some of them force themselves upwards at seeing him, clearly not having expected him to be here. A smile comes to his lips at the people in front of him, not having seen any of them since their auditions. He remembers the way they had all sung and he was honestly pleased at the talents he’d managed to pick out. 

Theo, a young guy with a deep soul like voice, straightens himself on the couch. Derek had liked his audition, in which he had done a [Lewis Capaldi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHRXmYdwc1o) song. The guy seemed a little full of himself, but Derek could see it was mostly an act. The dark haired girl next to him, Kira, gives him a sweet smile. Derek was really excited for her. She had done a soft indie song in her audition, her voice clear and gentle. He was a fan of Parrish too, who had a voice like lightning, rough but very much controlled. Older man Deucalion was the only one he wasn’t fully sure about, but the man was great on the acoustic guitar and didn’t have an awful voice.

“Hi all, I heard we were going to be shooting in an hour, but figured we should talk a bit before that.”

His team stares at him unsurely, and when he goes to sit down on the red chair - because everything on this fucking set had to be red - in front of them, he can see them calm slightly. They chat comfortably for the next hour or so and Derek tries to think of who he should put up against each other. 

The camera crew comes to join them, forcing his team into a line and Derek to stand in front of them. He puts Kira up against Hayden, a girl who has a somewhat comparable voice. Theo against Parrish and funky Mason up with Deucalion. 

They spend the rest of the day practicing, shooting the scripted parts of the show first, whereas after he spends one on one time with Kira and Hayden, helping them ease into the song they’ll have to perform. It’s an [Adele](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vuF2GfxWg) song, so he knows they have serious work to do. He can’t help but feel tired at the end of the day, his shoulders locked up and his head telling him it’s time to go home.

Oh wait. He’s going out to dinner with Boyd and Erica. Resisting the urge to groan and quickly leave so he can hide out in his apartment, he turns on his heels and leaves for the room he knows Erica was filming in. She’d come drag him out of his house anyway.

Except when he enters through the door that says Reyes on it, her team was apparently still filming. Erica shoots him a glare that is supposed to be angry, but the amusement is clear in her eyes. “Get out of my room Hale. Go coach your own pathetic team.”

He scowls, almost flinching when the cameras all suddenly turn on him. He ignores them, looking at how Erica is talking to a shy looking blonde girl - he believes her name is Heather - and allows her to finish up the conversation as he goes to stand behind the cameras. There a heavy feeling creeps up on his neck, he can feel eyes on him.

He moves, seeing Stiles sprawled out on one of the couches, staring at Derek unapologetically. It makes his stomach tighten. Stiles truly was beautiful, the moles stretched around his skin are visible well in the effortless position. A position that leaves little to the imagination anyway. Derek can’t help the heavy feeling in his chest. Especially when Stiles smirks at him lazily, an intensity in his eyes. Derek lowers his eyes, ignoring the blush that forms on his cheeks. 

Jesus, why was he this affected by a fucking kid.

When he looks back up Erica is in front of him, eyebrows raised in a knowing look. “Come Hale, let’s not let leave our man waiting.”

“He’s your man.” Derek grunts out, glad for the distraction, as he leads them outside - leaving Stiles and his looks behind them.

\----

The looks just got worse. Derek was in the studio about four times a week, mostly spent rehearsing with his team. He was seeing a lot of improvement in them, especially Kira and Parrish were doing well. Somehow Stiles seemed to always be around, either at the lunch station, at wardrobe, or watching his team members rehearse. 

Like now, Kira and Hayden were practicing their song up upon the boxing ring stage. Derek had been watching them, brought in Isaac as a fellow coach, when he noticed Stiles standing at the side of the room. Silently watching the performance as he leans against the wall. Derek rolls his eyes, stepping outside of the ring and walking towards the man. “Leave Stiles.” 

Stiles just grins, his auburn eyes widening as he does so. A teasing look visible within them. “What? I can’t check out the competition?”

Derek deadpans, ignoring the rush that’s flowing through his chest. “No, pretty sure that’s not allowed.”

“Alright,” Stiles kicks himself of the wall, the movement strangely attractive, as he leaves a lingering look Derek’s way. “Good thing it was not them I was checking out.”

Derek watches him leave, his pants sitting tighter than they had before. 

\--

“I can’t believe you’re not letting me meet Aiden and Ethan.”

Laura snorts across from him, laughing around her bite of teriyaki chicken. “Come on Cora, don’t tell me you seriously like them.”

Cora deadpans at her sister. “Unlike you Laura, I’m not thirty. I am actually allowed to appreciate their music.”

Laura glares at their younger sister, throwing a piece of chinese lettuce her way. Derek huffs out a breath, shaking his head at their idiocy, as he moves forwards to grab himself an extra spoonful of the beef stew. “They’re dickheads Cora, nothing special.”

“Hot dickheads."

Derek rolls his eyes. Cora loved that he was on The Voice. In fact, she’d always loved the fact he was famous. Always begging him to take her along to the afterparties he was supposedly invited to and to meet other celebrities. She’d been wanting to come to the set ever since filming started and Derek had finally caved in. He knew she would get there one way or another and he’d rather still have some control over the situation.

So he flew her in to LA and she’d immediately made a home in his apartment. Now his quiet nights were spent with two of his sisters plastered on his couch and empty take out boxes filling up his coffee table. 

He shakes his head. “Try not to embarrass me too much tomorrow.”

Cora grins teasingly. “But embarrassing you is my favourite thing to do.”

To be fair, she didn’t embarrass him much. They were shooting the battles today, Derek knowing he would have to make choices as to who survived to the next round. It wasn’t that he had favourites, but secretly he hoped Parrish and Kira would do well enough to let him get them through.

Cora was by his side whenever they were not shooting, laughing at how stupid he looked in the purple checkered shirt wardrobe had put him in and complaining about how bored she was. 

“I told you it wasn’t that exciting.”

Cora shrugs, carelessly whipping her hair over her shoulder. “Figured you were being a boring prick as usual. But yeah..you were right, shooting television is fucking boring.”

Their director, Harris, walks by them and barely looks at Derek as he yells an order his way. “Derek I need you in your chair pronto. Shooting Erica’s battles in five minutes.”

Turns out it was Stiles’ battle. Derek tries to ignore his excitement at getting to see the man sing again. 

The moment he came onto the stage, Derek knew that there was no denying his crush on Stiles any longer. He was captivated by the way Stiles moved, the way he gripped his mic tightly as he sang the most delicate opening to a song Derek thinks he ever heard. Erica had forced him, and Heather who he was up against, into doing Queen. Which is hard for any singer, no matter how good you are. Yet he already knows Stiles will do well.

Derek can’t help but smile at the opening notes of [_Somebody To Love_.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj69iA_goIk) Stiles is going completely into the song, eyes closed as he hits the first high note perfectly. Erica had done well, the song fits Stiles like a glove. 

Like he said, Derek doesn’t want to pick favourites but Heather didn’t stand a chance. Her voice is good, steady, but Stiles pulls every note towards him like he owns them. Like he owns the song. Delivering every line with intention and emotion. Derek can’t help but stare.

Stiles’ eyes find his, sparkling with unknown intent as he stares him down. Aiming his next words at Derek with his eyes. “Can anybody find me somebody to love.”

All Derek can do is swallow.

\--

Stiles won, as expected. Erica hugs Heather goodbye and with that, her team was half of what it had been before. Derek grimaces, knowing the same would happen to his team. It makes him feel uneasy. He’s really gotten to know his candidates over the last week and they’re all so passionate about their music and this competition.

Kira and Hayden battle it out in front of him, both bellowing out song at the top of their lungs. Kira is as good as Derek hoped she would be and he was pleased to be taking her to the live shows. He ends the day with a bittersweet feeling, having sent half his team home. This round was harsh, having so many people eliminated, but it did truly leave the best singers for the live shows. 

Sending people away didn’t necessarily upset him, he knew what this competition entailed, but he couldn’t help but feel his heart strings being pulled as Deucalion walked away from the stage. The guy had told him this show was the last shot he’d ever give his music career and Derek felt guilty for taking it away from him. 

He releases a sigh, happy the long day was finally over, and climbs out of the surprisingly uncomfortable chair. Honestly they made them sit in these chairs all day, the least they could do was add a pillow or something. He looks to see Cora standing happily at the sideline, chatting animatedly to none other than Stiles.

His brows furrow as he makes his way over. 

“I would have picked Theo.” Cora starts the conversation, humour hinting in her eyes as she looks at him. “But well, Parrish is more your type so I suppose I should have expected it.”

Stiles’ eyes dart towards his, an emotion he can’t read visible in them. 

He clears his throat, feeling awkward under Stiles’ eyes, and choses to glare at his sister. “I thought I told you to not bother anyone.”

“She’s not bothering me.” Stiles’ familiar grin is back, the emotion in his eyes covered over. “In fact, she’s letting me see a whole new side of you. Apparently you’re fun.”

“Don’t lie Stilinski. I said he can have a fun side sometimes. Rarely.”

“Stilinski?” Derek frowns at the recognition of the name. 

Stiles sends him a lopsided smile, eyes daring. “As in sheriff Stilinski yes. You’re not the only one trying to make it big in our small town Derek.” 

Cora huffs out a breath, shaking her head as she sends him a disbelieving look. “Stiles was in my class Derek, don’t you remember?”

Derek stares at the man in front of him and bites the insides of his cheeks as he realizes he doesn’t. He wonders how he could ever have missed someone like Stiles. 

\--

“So, when were you going to tell us about your obvious crush?”

Derek groans, rolling his eyes before setting his glare on Erica. She just snickers, grabbing a fry of his plate. “Don’t look at me like that Derek. I understand, if I didn’t have Boyd I’d get my hands all over him too.”

Boyd just huffs out a light hearted laugh, seemingly unbothered by his girlfriend’s admission. The two had been together for almost seven years, so he supposes there were no worries necessary. Erica is giving him a teasing grin and Derek wants to fall through the ground, but looking around the state of the diner they’re currently in he realizes he’d rather not touch the floor.

“Is this about that Stiles guy?” Isaac intervenes, a fry hanging from his lip, “because yeah, Derek definitely has a crush on him.” 

Erica snorts loudly, her lips curling upwards. “Right? It is so obvious. Derek might as well have _in love_ tattooed on his forehead.”

“Isaac I am never bringing you with me again.”

Isaac just smiles, an exaggerated wink send his way. “So Erica, fifty bucks says they’ll fuck before the end of the show.”

“I put a hundred on next week.”

\---

Since the filming of the auditions and battles were over, the show was on a six week break. The live shows were aired live after all and the editors were busy making sense of the first rounds. Derek was just glad they didn’t have to reshoot anything and he truly has some time off. He would not miss having Harris boss him around. Cora had forced him to fly back home with her, so he’d be spending his break with his family.

He was honestly excited for it. He hadn’t seen his parents and other siblings in a couple of months, so it’d be good to see them again. His career had taken its toll on the time he was able to spend with his family. Touring and even rehearsing all happened away from home. He hated it. Family was important to him and not being able to see them frustrated him a great deal.

Cora and him walk out of customs and Derek tries not to look anyone in the eye, hoping the dark sunglasses and black hat he’s wearing will not make him too recognizable. He’s not really in the mood for talking to anyone other than his family. Checking his phone for messages, he sees Laura is taking them to run a few errands first before they’ll head to the preserve. 

The deep black Mustang was waiting for them at the taxi stand and after Laura had obnoxiously honked at least four times, they were off. Derek smiled as he watched out the car window, the familiar sights of Beacon Hills filling up his view. The mountain ranges shape the landscape and when they drive into the town centre he smiles at seeing the shops.

He liked Beacon Hills as a town. Since having moved to New York and now staying in LA, he had come to appreciate the locally owned shops he’d grown up with. It’s nice knowing that the bakery actually sells home made goods, that the florist will laugh when you come in and tease you about who you’re trying to make up with. Even the grocery shop felt different, more local products and not the large mass production products you find in the city.

Most people here knew him and their family, but never really bothered him. They respected his need for privacy. Not that Derek would ever really turn anyone that wanted a photo or signature away, but he didn’t enjoy being recognized when he was just trying to live his life. It was nice to come home to a place where people respected that. Almost no one ever camer up to him and when they did, they usually kept it short and sweet. Derek hugely appreciated it and knew it probably had something to do with his mom’s local reputation as well. 

Laura is laughing loudly into his ear, swinging a familiar arm around him, as Cora is scooting forwards with the shopping cart. They pick up some fresh produce, grabbing some zucchini and mushrooms. Their dad is going to make his infamous lasagna.

Derek’s wandered over to the meat section, picking up some minced meat. He frowns as he realizes he’d accidentally gotten the fatty version and bends down to switch it for a leaner package. No need to eat an extra 5% of fat.

“So the famous Derek Hale still does his own grocery shopping.” 

Derek frowns, firstly annoyed at being recognized but curious when he realizes he recognizes the voice of whoever spoke to him. He stands up to see Stiles smirking down at him and has to resist the urge to sigh. Apparently the universe didn’t feel like giving Derek’s crush a rest during this mini vacation.

“I know it might surprise you, but I’m not completely blinded by the fame.”

Stiles smiles kindly, the teasing look still visible in his eyes. “I knew that. Small town kind of guy at heart.”

“Stiles!” Cora runs over, mindlessly dropping a sack of shallots into their cart. “So good to see you!”

The two share a friendly hug and Derek’s frown just increases. He knew Cora and Stiles had shared classes, but he hadn’t known his sister and Stiles were this close. Laura comes over and joins their group, also giving Stiles a brief hug. Derek feels like his frown can’t possibly expand any more, but then Laura invites Stiles over for dinner. Saying mom would like it too.

He knows he hasn’t been around for a while, but since when did his entire family know Stiles?

\--

His mom held him tightly as he came in, arms wrapped around him. Her eyes glisten as she smiles down at him warmly, and Derek feels a rush of guilt fill up his chest. It’s clear his mom had missed him, even if she would never tell him how much exactly. He really needed to come home more often. Or at least try to. 

His dad, Andrew, just gives him a pleased grin as he walks in, only looking up from his laptop briefly. “Good to see you Derek.” 

“The Sheriff and Stiles are coming over for dinner.” Cora announces as she rushes by them, taking a few of the shopping bags into the kitchen.

“Ah that will be nice,” his mother smiles kindly, “Kiara can you deck the table?”

His third sister, Kiara, is standing on the top of the stairs. She smiles brightly when she spots Derek and rushes down to hug him. Derek laughs as he wraps his arms around her. God, he hadn’t seen her in ages. She’d been living in Amsterdam the last year and had only come home when the shooting for The Voice had started, making Derek unable to come and see her. 

Even though Derek had always been closer with Laura, Kiara was the sister that truly understood him. Where Laura and Cora took after their mom, Derek and Kiara were straight copies of their dad. They were more reserved, preferred being on the background instead of in the spotlight. They were also always the one getting shit on by the rest of the family, but guess that’s a part of being a shyer Hale. 

“God, I missed you. Laura has been a nightmare, at least now she’ll bully you.” 

“At least you don’t have to work with her.” Derek laughs as he steps out of Kiara’s embrace. 

Her hair is even lighter than he remembered it being. Kiara’s kind of the odd one out, not having the dark black hair the Hale family all seems to have inherited, but more of an ashy blonde colour. Much like Peter’s had been. 

Cora gives their mother a frown. “Why does Kiara have to deck the table? Just because Derek is finally showing his face again, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to do shit.” 

“Cora.” Talia reprimands her daughter, but he can see the humour hinting in her eyes.

Andrew closes his laptop, the loud click making them look his way, and he’s smirking up at his children. “I agree actually Talia, go cut the onions Derek.”

Derek huffs out a laugh, but doesn’t mind at all. He walks into the kitchen, Kiara automatically following him and telling him her crazy stories of her bartending job in Amsterdam. Grabbing one of the sharper knives he makes quick work of the onions as Kiara sets the table, laughing at his recollections of The Voice. It all feels so much like when they were kids and they spend days sitting on the counter, watching their dad cook. Derek basks in the happy memories the moment gives him.

He’d almost forgotten about Stiles and his father coming over for dinner when the doorbell rang. Derek swallows, feeling strangely nervous, as he watches Laura jog over to the door excitedly. 

Stiles enters his house like he lives there, a happy smile marking his face as he greets Laura, before kicking off his shoes and placing them amongst the shoe rack already filled with his family’s collection of sneakers, boots and dress shoes. He throws his baseball jacket onto the couch with ease and familiarity. The sheriff follows him in, greeting Talia kindly before the pair makes their way into the living room.

His family doesn’t seem to find any of this odd, instead greeting Stiles as if this is a regular occurrence. Which it wasn’t. At least not when Derek was living here. His parents had always been relatively friendly with the sheriff and Derek vaguely remembers his mom being friends with the sheriff’s wife, but Stiles had never been this present in their lives.

When his teenage cousin Lucas, Peter’s son, comes barging into the room to hug Stiles Derek can feel his confusement reaching its peak. Lucas was a brat, way too much like Peter in that aspect, and he usually spent his days hold up in his bedroom. Hell, he hadn’t even come to greet Derek. Yet when Stiles walks in, he is suddenly all social. 

Derek frowns and grabs Kiara’s arm, guiding her with him into the hallway. She gives him a puzzled frown, slapping his hand off. “What the hell Derek?”

He sighs, dropping his voice to a whisper. “How does everyone know Stiles?”

“Oh. Well I don’t really know, I’ve only been back two months but yeah he comes for dinner quite a lot. He’s a friend of Cora I think.”

“He wasn’t when I was here.”

Kiara purses her lips. “I think he was Derek, he’s the one that saved her from that drugged drink thing back in high school.”

Derek scowls at the bad memory. Cora had called Laura in a panic, saying she was almost drugged at this high school party. He’d been furious when he heard, but thankfully there had been a guy who’d seen it happening and warned her in time. Derek had always been extremely grateful for Cora’s random savoir.

For.. Stiles apparently. “Oh.”

Kiara shakes her head, giving him a weird look over her shoulder, before she heads back to join the others. Derek stays in the hallway for a bit, collecting his thoughts. Stiles was suddenly everywhere and the more Derek learned, the deeper he was falling. 

\--

“So Andrew, how’s the novel coming along?” Stiles asks, taking a bite of his lasagna. 

Andrew cocks his head, shrugging slightly. “It’s coming.”

Stiles’ smile turns into a smirk and Cora rolls her eyes as she slaps him on the shoulder, non verbally telling him to shut up before he even said anything. Derek feels like rolling his eyes too, because Stiles’ slightly childish humour shouldn’t make him want to laugh, but he just can’t help watching Stiles and Cora interact. They really seem close. How had he missed that before?

Stiles catches his eyes from across the table and Derek thinks he can actually see a blush on the other man’s cheeks. 

Laura seems to pick up on it and sends him a pointed look from across the table. Derek can feel his own cheeks heating up and is suddenly extremely thankful Erica isn’t here with them. She would have told Laura all about his crush and he’s doing fine without that embarrassment. Laura looks as if she already knows though and grins widely as she speaks up. “So Stiles, tell us some more about The Voice. Derek won’t tell us anything.”

“Oh well,” Stiles starts, cheeks still red, “it’s good. I mean it’s awesome that I even managed to get through and all, didn’t really expect to, and the whole experience has been so great. Erica is so great as well, but you all know her right? Yeah she’s so nice. But filming can be a bit slow.”

The sheriff huffs out a laugh. “Are you sure you're not just being impatient?”

“No he’s right,” Derek starts, keeping his eyes fixed on the sheriff and explicitly not on Stiles, “the production team is terrible.”

His mother laughs while Laura’s eyebrows shoot upwards. “You didn’t tell me that Der, I can call them and kick their ass for wasting your time.”

Derek wants to laugh but the thing is, he knew Laura actually would. And she would be scary. He didn’t want to do that to the poor intern that was on phone duty that forsaken day. 

“It’s just Derek. Let’s not act like his time is all that precious.” Lucas adds in snarkingly and Derek automatically throws a cherry tomato his way. Little shit. 

The sound of Stiles’ loud laughter fills up his ears and Derek can’t say he hates the sound. Quite the opposite actually. He’d let Lucas offend him for the rest of his life if it meant Stiles would laugh like that.

\--

The soap itches on his hands, but he knows he’s only got a little way left to go. Lucas begrudgingly hands him another plate and Derek grabs the wash up brush to wipe off all the leftover pesto stains.

They had a dishwasher. His mom just liked making them wash the dishes by hand whenever she felt they had misbehaved. Stiles had laughed when Talia had ordered him and Lucas to go because of their food fight. Whilst he loved his mother, she could be such a drama queen. Food fight. They’d both thrown exactly one tiny tomato. The same tomato even.

He knew she did it as a way for them to talk it out, but Derek really didn’t see anything to talk about. Lucas was just a bit of a prick and so was Derek. Sometimes that meant they threw things at each other. They’d never actually had a problem, ever since he moved in Derek had always loved Lucas as a brother. 

“My dad called me last week.”

Derek almost drops the plate he was washing. Peter didn’t contact them often, just the occasional email or text. Usually filled with some vague update about his life and sometimes -rarely- a question about how Lucas was doing. He never contacted Lucas directly. 

Lucas’ mother had died when he was seven and Peter had been unable to take being a single parent. Especially a single parent to the child that reminded him of the loss of the love of his life. Her death had been hard on all of them, but Peter had never really recovered from it. Peter had tried to be a parent for a year or so, but he could never really settle in. One day, he’d brought Lucas over for a play-date with Cora, never coming back to pick him up again. He’d just packed up his shit and left. Mom had been furious, calling him at least twenty times a day and leaving him angry voicemails full of yelling. Later mom had admitted she was also thankful for it, as Peter had started drinking heavily again. This way, at least Lucas was safe. 

Derek looks up at Lucas, who’s trying to make himself look overly busy with drying the cutlery. 

“What did he say?” Derek tries to keep his voice casual, not wanting to make Lucas feel like it is a big deal. Even if it is. 

“He’s in Mexico apparently. With some far of cousin I’ve never heard of before.” Lucas’ deep brown eyes look at him with a mixture of annoyance and regret. “Asked if I wanted to come down to join them.”

Derek leaves the plate in the sink, moving to place his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Did you tell mom?” 

Lucas shakes his head. “No, I don’t want them to know. They’ll just make a big thing out of it. I mean, we all know he is just going to disappear again.”

Derek lets his hand squeeze Lucas’ shoulder briefly before dropping it, knowing Lucas wouldn’t want him to get to emotional about this. Everyone’s always felt bad for him, tiptoed around him. The first few years Peter was never even mentioned around him. Lucas had always hated it. He never wanted the attention, never wanted to be viewed as that poor little kid. Never wanted to be seen as weak.

Derek shrugs. “Yeah, he might. But you know, apparently he did want to talk to you. It doesn’t have to mean anything, but you wouldn’t be wrong for wanting it to.” 

Lucas sends him a sharp look, determination visible in his eyes. “I don’t.”

Derek just nods, trying to hide how proud he is of the way Lucas is handling this, and they go back to washing their dishes in a comfortable silence.

\--

When they return to the living room, his mom is chatting happily with the sheriff, glasses of red wine in their hands. Platters with toasts and other little bites have found its way onto the coffee table. Stiles meets his eyes as they walk into the room and Derek just can’t get used to the fact Stiles is currently in his house, with his family. 

It makes him feel weird. A bit uncomfortable for some reason. He’d liked Stiles, obviously, when they were on set. But there it was more like a fantasy. Something unrealistic, something unattainable. Something that was probably not going to happen and if it did, it would just be a bit of random fun. 

Now Stiles was in his home. Now it was more. It was attainable. At least, it could be.

Stiles was different as well. On The Voice he was cocky, flirty, confident. A tease. Here he was loving, genuinely interested in Derek’s family and their lives. He was silly, joking on and off with Cora and Laura. Even Kiara was laughing at everything Stiles did and said. 

It made it all feel different. Derek’s crush had been shallow, sexual. But today had made it more than that. It made it..real.

It scares the hell out of him.

He joins to sit down with the others, getting caught up in Lucas’ stories about Beacon Hills high. They all laugh, sharing their embarrassing memories and gossip about the place. Stiles and Cora keep on joking about some guy called Greenberg. Laura keeps butting in and Lucas is trying to steal Stiles’ popcorn, to which Stiles slaps his hand away playfully. Derek feels his chest warming at the sight of Stiles amongst his family.

It’s another hour before Stiles and his dad leave. Somehow, he suspects it’s Laura’s doing, Derek gets to be the one to walk them out. The smile Stiles sends him is small and it feels intimate somehow. “Thanks for having me Derek, I had a good time.”

Derek can’t do much more than simply nod, a genuine smile taking a hold of his lips. “Me too.”

\--

Break passed quickly, Derek flew home the last week to rehearse with Isaac and Boyd. Not that it was much of a serious rehearsal, seeing as they ended up drunk on Boyd’s couch. Erica had been thrilled about that fact when she came home from recording her new album, squealing with delight as she forced some more sambuca shots into them.

Even though they all lead a supposed rockstar life, they actually didn’t get drunk that often. Derek didn’t necessarily like getting drunk either. He wasn’t a party type. Didn’t like the whole forcibly happy atmosphere of ‘oh hey we’re all drunk let’s go wild’. When he usually got drunk it was to get lost. Or to get laid. 

Today was different though. It was the pleasant kind of drunk. The giddly kind of drunk. Isaac was plastered against his side and whenever he laughed, Derek could feel his curls graze his chest. Boyd and Erica were cuddled up on the loveseat next to them, huddled together closely.

Erica is mostly busy with drawing patterns onto Boyd’s arm mindlessly They look so in love, it makes his heart ache a little. Yet, they’d never excluded Isaac or him. The four of them had just always remained friends and they were together most of the week. Derek is grateful to have them. Erica catches him looking over and sends him a private drunken smile. Derek smiles back, realizing how happy he is these people are in his lives. 

“Do you think Allison Argent would fuck me?”

Erica’s laugh is loud and sudden, filling up the room, and Derek can’t help but join in. Fucking Isaac. 

Boyd remains his serious expression as he considers it. “I think she might actually.” 

\--

Shooting started not long after. The wardrobe department dressed Derek in a faded jean jacket for the the first show, which was something he actually didn’t mind for once, and he quickly went backstage to find Kira, Mason and Parrish. 

Parrish is pacing around the room nervously when he enters and Derek places a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll do fine Jordan, don’t worry.”

Parrish shoots him a disbelieving smile, but did stop his pacing and went to sit on the couch next to Kira. There Kira grabs his hand and squeezes it lovingly. The two share a look Derek could only describe as intimate. Oh. When had that happened? Derek can feel a smile forming on his face.

Mason sighs and looks up at him with a sense of defeat. “It’s been great to meet you guys.”

Kira turns to face him, giving him a stern frown. “Why are you saying that like you’re planning on leaving?”

Mason shrugs, scratching the back of his hand in a nervous movement. “Just being realistic. I mean I’m good at what I do, but I’m a one trick pony. Can’t really compete with all of you.”

A frown falls on Derek’s face. “Not with that attitude no.”

Mason just looks up at him helplessly, clearly unsure of what he’s supposed to do. Derek internally sighs at knowing this is a coaching moment. He’s not really good at the emotional part of being a coach. He’s not that great with emotions in general, but he does really understand what Mason is feeling. The first real show him and _Månen_ had performed had left him scared shitless too. 

“Look,” he starts, feeling slightly awkward about taking on this emotional guidance role, “all artists go through this feeling. We’ve all felt like there are a million people out there that are better than us. And yes, there might be. But as soon as you let yourself believe that you’re not good enough, you won’t be. Yes, there’s a chance you might go home today. But would you really want to go home because you didn’t give it your all? Or would you prefer to go home having giving it everything you’ve got?”

Mason nods at his words and Derek can see a look of determination fill the other man’s eyes. A smile comes to his lips. Maybe he wasn’t that bad at this coaching thing after all. 

\--

The live shows were honestly insane. The atmosphere on set was so tense and hectic that if felt like there was a thick smoke in the air - making everyone struggle to stay calm. Harris was walking around like a madman, barking out orders and trying to control every aspect of the show. Derek had never liked Harris, thought he was a massive prick, but there’s no denying the man did always get the job done. 

Like right now, the stage looked great and he knew the lightning department had all kinds of special effects planned. It made him kind of excited to see some people perform. 

One of the interns, he believes her name is Caitlin, guids him to his chair and asked if he would like a drink. Shaking his head, Derek looks to his right to see Erica staring at him fiercely, smirking widely. The margarita glass in her hand shows she did choose to have a drink. “Ready to lose, Hale?”

Derek rolls her eyes, sending her a half-hearted glare. “Did you even pay attention last time? Kira alone can kick out your entire team.”

“Please,” Erica snickers, “we all know your lover boy is going to be the true winner tonight."

Derek feels a blush reach his cheeks as he tries to to send Erica a pointed look. “He’s not my lover boy.” 

“Only because you’re too scared to actually ask him out.” Erica’s grin is wide and judgemental and Derek shakes his head, deciding she is sounding too much like Laura right now. 

So he does what he always does when Laura is being annoying. “I’m going to ignore you now.”

Her loud cackle fills up the air. “See? You’re even too scared to talk about it.”

Derek’s reply, which would have been the exact right level of snark and wit, gets cut off when Harris calls for action. As the camera’s turn on, the ones behind the stage focusing on him as well, Derek moves to sit up straight. The lights dim dramatically, leaving the stage lit up only by spotlights, and the soft familiar tune of [_Another Love_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwpMEbgC7DA)enters the room. Derek moves forwards in his chair, knowing this is Parrish performing, and lets a seriousness fall over his expression. 

They’d practiced the song a couple of times this week and Derek knew it fit Parrish’ deep voice well. He could put a bit of soul into the chorus, which Derek knew Parrish liked to do. Derek bites his lip as he watches Parrish, who’s sitting on a lone bar stool in the middle of the shadowy stage, start to sing. 

Parrish hits the first line perfectly, his voice filled with clear intent, and Derek can feel a wave of relief rush over him. He hadn’t even realized he was nervous for his contestants, but he supposes it makes sense. He had come to care about Parrish and the others and wanted them to do well. 

The song continues on and when the chorus starts, Parrish does great with getting his emotion across. Derek does sigh briefly as he notices Jordan is doing the hand clenching thing again. They’d tried to work on that, but somehow when hitting a high note Parrish balled his hands into fists and waved them around almost comically. 

Apart from that, Parrish did well and when the song ended Derek stood up in his chair to clap for his pupil. A small smile marking his lips. 

Harris signs from behind the camera and Allison starts of her feedback, smiling sweetly. “I thought this was lovely, Jordan. You really spoke to me in the chorus and I think you did really good over all. Great performance.”

On stage Parrish releases a breath, clearly relieved, and Derek nods in agreement with Allison’s words. Parrish had really done well. 

One of the twin’s contestants enters the stage next, bright green and pink lightning flashing behind them as they sing a mediocre version of _[Blank Space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HijicrTpauI) . _Derek can’t help his disgruntled expression. It’s not that the girl is bad, but it’s just not at the level of the other contestants. It’s just not good enough for him.

Harris shakes his hand his way when the girl finishes and Derek moves in his seat to speak up. “Well..”

Oh fuck. He can’t remember her name. Shit. Was it Maria? No it wasn’t. Umh. 

Panicked he looks over at Erica, who is rolling her eyes at him and mouthing “Malia” his way. Gladfully, he nods, already knowing the tabloid sites will write articles about this in the morning. _“Derek Hale so not interested in the show, he can’t even remember a contestant’s name”._

“Malia,” he continues, feeling slightly awkward, “I’m going to be honest with you. This was not up to par for me. I can tell you don’t have a bad voice, but unfortunately I can’t say this performance blew me away. I kept waiting for the good bit to start, but then it never did.”

Malia nods half-heartedly on stage and Derek can tell she is annoyed with him by the way she flicks her hand as she goes to listen to Erica’s judgement. Derek kind of wants to disappear, irritation with himself overtaking him. 

He’s still eating himself up slightly, Erica having scolded him with a grin, when the lights become dim again. The large screens behind the stage fill up with images of delicate stained glass and Derek’s interest is peaked. His interest turns into a deeper feeling of attention as Stiles comes onto the stage.

Instinctively he moves forwards on his chair, letting his eyes scan over the army green jacket Stiles is wearing. It frames his shoulders nicely, only distracting Derek for a brief second as he quickly becomes fixated on Stiles’ face. Stiles has his eyes closed in concentration as he opens the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0imaSCnSuA).

“My lover’s got humour, she’s the giggle at a funeral.” 

Derek can’t stop his mouth from dropping open. The hairs on his arms rise upwards at the delicate opening of the song. Fuck, he’d almost forgotten how good Stiles really was. Derek forces his mouth shut and his eyes can’t help but be fixed on Stiles’ features as he allows himself to just listen. 

Usually he was always aware of the technical side of a song, making notes and truly ‘judging’ so to speak, but he can feel himself forgetting about all that as Stiles’ raw voice pulls him into the song. 

“The only heaven I’ll be sent to, is when I’m alone with you.”

Stiles’ eyes meet his from across the stage and Derek swallows, feeling the intensity in the other man’s eyes. A blush comes onto his cheeks. 

His heart aches in his chest as he watches Stiles perform. Stiles delivers every line with such an emotional intent, Derek can’t help but wish he could be on the receiving end of that emotion some day. Not wanting to read into things, he reminds himself that it’s really unprofessional to think about Stiles this way. He shouldn’t be this affected by the other man.

The chorus kicks in, electric guitars stepping up from behind Stiles, and Derek can’t help but fall even harder for the man singing in front of him. His voice is laced with a passion, with a deep feeling of belonging, as he moves across the stage with an untaught ease. Every high note is hit as if it’s nothing and god..the way Stiles moves when he sings. Sometimes he clenches his hand around his microphone and Derek can’t help but think shameful things about those long fingers. 

Stiles’ voice breaks slightly as he powers through the second chorus, but it just sounds beautiful. “I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies” 

The honey brown eyes flick his way again and Derek starts to feel overwhelmed with a feeling of longing.He wants this man. He wants Stiles to sing this about him. To give the love he’s singing about to Derek.

When the song finishes Erica is standing and screaming inside of her chair. Bouncing up and down in excitement, blonde curls framing her face wildly, as she goes to applaud Stiles. Harris sends her a stern look as he motions for her to sit back down again. Erica just keeps on cackling as she starts up her judgement. “Damn Stiles, I knew you had it in you but god..I can’t even put into words how fucking amazing this was.”

Stiles preens on the stage, biting his lip slightly, as he sends a gorgeously bright smile her way. His eyes land on Derek next and vulnerability becomes visible inside them.

All Derek really can do is look, not even knowing how to judge Stiles. The intense spell the song seemed to have put him under still having its effect. He just wants. He wants it all.

Looking down briefly, he clears his throat, not even knowing how to say something without revealing all his feelings on live television. When he looks back up Stiles is looking at him almost nervously.

“I-” Derek starts, feeling slightly overwhelmed under Stiles’ stare, “It- it was just really good Stiles.”

Stiles ducks his head, a redness taking hold of his cheeks, and when he looks back up at Derek there is relief in his eyes. His voice is soft when he speaks up. “I’m glad you liked it.”

A feeling of longing fills up Derek’s chest and for a second it feels as if there’s no one else in the room but them.

\--

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Erica swats his bag out of his hands, dropping it and its contents over his dressing room floor, and Derek sends her an annoyed look. “I thought I was going home, but you’re probably going to be telling me where I’ll really be going.” 

Erica shakes her head mockingly, going to lean against the door post. “God, I forgot what a boring fuck you can be sometimes. We have an afterparty to go to, Derek.”

“No.” 

He bends over to pick his stuff back up and Erica makes use of the position to kick him on his butt. Fucking hell. 

“Come ooooon Derek,” Erica whines, “I invited Boyd and Isaac too, so all of your friends are going to be there.”

Derek crosses his arms and sends her a pointed look. “I have other friends.”

“Your guitars don’t count,” Erica singsongs, smirking in a way that shows she already knows she’s won. It makes Derek feel like he’s four years old again and too small to stand up to his sisters.

She shakes her head at him before grabbing a strong hold of his hand to drag him along back to the studio. Derek grunts, but doesn’t continue to fight her. He’s learned that giving into Erica’s plans early is better than to keep on arguing. Somehow she always ends up winning.

“Stiles is coming too, you know.” 

Oh. Suddenly he doesn’t mind going as much. 

\--

The party is just in their backstage area, where the usual couches and chairs have been moved to the side, and tables filled with bottles of wine, cider and he thinks even vodka have taken their place. A single string of gold balloons hangs on the ceiling and it confuses Derek. It just looks a little sad. 

Isaac and Boyd are off chatting in the corner and Derek grabs three bottles of beer out of a cooler before heading their way. They send him a friendly nod, Isaac wrapping his arm around him familiarly, and soon the three of them are off discussing the new song Isaac had written for the upcoming album. 

Glancing around the room, he quickly spots Kira and Parrish dancing together. They’re smiling widely, clearly celebrating the fact they were both through to the next round, as they clink their glasses together. They look happy and Derek can feel his chest warming. 

Mason unfortunatly hadn’t made it through and Derek grimaces as he doesn’t see him anywhere at the party. Perhaps the guy hadn’t really wanted to be around all the happy celebrating people. Derek can’t help but feel bad for him. He knew he’d tried to advise him earlier, but it seemingly hadn’t worked out. Even though Derek knows this is in no way his fault, he can’t help but feel a little guilty. Maybe he could have done better as a coach. 

It’s then his eyes spot Stiles standing across the room. He’s laughing animatedly, his whole body seemingly filled with laughter, and it would be the most attractive thing Derek had ever seen. Except Stiles was laughing at something a redhead whispered intimately into his ear. Derek stares as Stiles slaps her away playfully before wrapping his arms closely around her and kissing her forehead. Derek feels a frown rise to his face. The redhead laughs, pushing Stiles away as she moves to grab a drink from the table to her right. Derek can feel his good mood ebbing away when she reveals herself to be extremely good looking.

Kicking himself off the wall, he clenches his teeth as he moves outside to get some fresh air. How he hadn’t known Stiles had a girlfriend was beyond him, but he can’t help but feel pathetic at the realization. 

The first real interest he’d had in someone in years and of course they turned out to not like them back. His damn luck. Stiles had clearly flirted with him though. Derek knows enough to not have imagined that. He supposes it was all one big joke to Stiles. Flirting with one of the coaches. Just a bit of fun. He should have known Stiles would never seriously like him. Because who would? 

Pushing open the exit door roughly, he’s surprised to find the bench in front of the studio already occupied. The young boy looks up at him with wide eyes and Derek frowns as he hears the heavy breaths the guy is releasing.

Doubtingly, he walks towards him. “You okay?”

The guy just nods, his hands fumbling as they move down to his jean pocket, clearly trying to get something out of it but not succeeding. His breaths are getting sharper and increasingly closer together and Derek quickly moves forwards to help the boy get his inhaler out of his pocket. 

Relieved, the boy places the inhaler between his lips and takes a few slightly more controlled breaths. Derek goes to sit down beside him, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder, as his breathing starts to slowly even out. 

The boy looks up at him with big eyes, a grateful smile at his lips. “Thanks for that, sorry it happened very suddenly and-” 

“It’s fine.” Derek cuts him off. “My cousin has asthma too, I know how it can be.”

The boy shrugs. “Still thanks, I’m Scott by the way.”

“I’m Derek.”

A grin comes onto the boy’s face. “Yeah I know who you are.”

Oh yeah right. Sometimes Derek forgot how well known he was. It’s still strange to him that people he’s never even met before already know who he is. But Scott seems oblivious to his discomfort, still smiling widely. “My friend Stiles told me a lot about you. Said he thinks you’re the most talented judge on here.”

Oh so Scott was a friend of Stiles. And Stiles apparently talked about Derek being talented. He bites the inside of his cheek, not sure what to do with that information.

When he looks back he sees Scott is looking at him expectantly. Blushing, he murmurs out a sentence. “Right, yeah Stiles is doing well.”

“I know right! How good was he today? He seemed so passionately in love.”

Annoyance comes to Derek and he clenches his hands together, his fingernails digging into his palms. Yeah, Stiles had really seemed passionately in love, but not with Derek. He feels really stupid, he should never have let himself fantasize like this. He should have known that Stiles flirting with Derek was just for kicks. That’s why anyone flirts with him after all. He’s Derek Hale. Rich and famous musician. Who wouldn’t get a kick out of flirting with that?

The building door opens and Derek internally groans when Stiles steps out. “Scott-”

“Oh wow hey Derek,” Stiles steps out of the door opening once he sees him, only looking surprised for a second before grinning slightly, “what’s up?”

“Derek helped me with my inhaler.” Scott preens, speaking as if he’s a six year old child lost in the mall and Derek had just helped him find his mother.

Stiles sends Derek an unreadable look and Derek kind of wants to disappear. He stands up, giving Scott a ‘no problem’, and moves to walk inside. As he brushes past Stiles, the other man gives him a confused frown. “Derek, you okay?”

Oh so now he’s interested. Derek scoffs, not finding it in himself to care much. He feels played and he doesn’t appreciate it. He looks over at Stiles, who’s looking at him puzzled, and Derek shakes his head. “Go fuck yourself, Stiles.”

With that, he lets his hand slide over the metal doorframe as he walks back inside. Laura has also made it to the party and he grumbles as he walks over to her. Her eyebrows rise with an air of amusement as she picks up on his spoiled mood, but she silently hands him an open bottle of beer. His lips curl around it quickly and he takes three big gulps, wanting the distraction. Laura just shakes her head next to him, taking a smaller and more controlled sip of her own beer. “You made the Buzzfeed top fifteen most awkward The Voice moments.”

A bitter taste comes to his mouth as he sighs. He’d already forgotten about the name slip up again, but it would make sense for Laura to come and harass him about it. It wasn’t a good look, publicity wise. He sends her an unimpressed look. “I suppose I’m at least five of those moments?”

“Just two actually,” Laura smirks teasingly, “and you did make the cutest moments list too.”

“What an honour.”

Her arm wraps around him and he feels the wet smack of her lips against his cheek before she whispers into his ear. “It was when you were watching Stiles perform. Apparently it’s not just me and Erica that think you’ve got a thing for him.”

Right. Stiles. He shakes his head, not feeling much else than embarrassment when he thinks about the other man now. It had been stupid to think he might have a chance. He should have ignored the slight butterflies he got when he looked at Stiles. He should just have remained professional and not allowed himself to develop any further feelings. No one ever likes him for more than his fame, why would this time have been different? Laura stares at his back as he moves to grab himself a new beer, wanting nothing more than to forget. 

He spends the next half hour of the party standing with his back against the wall, taking overly large sips of the beer he’s holding, and grumpily staring out at the room. Scott had been sending him dirty looks and Stiles hadn’t even looked his way once. Not that Derek cared. He just hoped the taxi he ordered would arrive soon. It was raining and also busy in the city, so Derek could forgive it for being a little late. What Derek couldn’t forgive it for was being so late that Stiles’ girlfriend came up to talk to him.

“You’re not as tough as you want people to think you are.” She says as she confidently comes to lean against the wall next to him, her lips curling around the straw of her pink coloured drink. 

His brows rise as he looks at her, unimpressed and incredibly annoyed by her presence. “And you would know that because?” 

“Because anyone with an above average intellect can see through the whole rockstar act and see that you’re actually scared.”

He huffs out a breath, almost finding this girl and her attitude funny, and shifts so he can look at her directly. “And what am I scared off then, oh wise random girl?” 

“Oh please don’t pretend that you don’t know who I am with. It’s the same guy who’s been moping all night whilst you’ve been trying to look tough over here. It’s sad to look at, so if you two could just get your shit together and stop being pathetic - that would be lovely.”

And with that, she disappears again. Her stiletto heels click on the floor as she walks away from him and for the first time that night he looks up at the corner he knew Stiles to be in. Their eyes meet and Derek almost feels dizzy at the intense stare he receives. Stiles however quickly breaks their eye contact in order to scowl at his now approaching girlfriend, hissing something her way, and it appears he did not like her having spoken to Derek.

Derek frowns. It’s all a bit too confusing for his seven-beers-brain.

It’s that moment that one of Allison’s contestants, who’d been walking past, unapologetically pukes over his shoes. It’s clear the girl could not handle her liquor and Derek tried not to look too disgusted, but he’s sure his expression didn’t leave many other impressions. The crew intern Caitlin rushes her way over and mumbles out an apology before guiding the girl out of the room, supporting her with both hands. Laura is bellowing out one of her loud drunken laughs next to him, but Derek is not in the mood to laugh with her. 

Staring at his now vomit covered dress shoes, all he can do is sigh. What a shite night. That taxi better be there.

\--

Living in LA was a nightmare. People had always told him that it was, and whilst he had believed them - living there himself really proved the point. Every single day, every little thing you had to do, it was as if the city deliberately liked to take a large shit on it whenever it could. Today was the perfect example.

His aspiring model neighbour had taken the liberties to use their shared gallery as a set, a giant pink backdrop now blocking the pathway to the stairs. When he asked her to move her shit, she stared at him dumbfoundedly and just flat out refused. Then her friend told her who he was and she actually had the audacity to demand a picture with him. Then the fucking elevator was only going up to the fourth floor as they were doing some matainance on the doors on the third, so he had to run the rest of the steps down considering he was now already six minutes too late for his ordered taxi and he knew the taxi’s here just drove away when they felt you were taking too long. Of course it was gone when he finally got outside. 

Getting a new one was near impossible at this hour, so he decided to walk. Except he’d forgotton how fucking hot LA is. He wasn’t really dressed for summer weather and the sun almost felt sorching on his skin. Pit stains were starting to form on his dress shirt and he hated his life. Twisting his wrist to look at the time, he saw he only had twentyfive minutes left to get to set. There was no way he’d make that on foot so he fumbled into his pocket to get out his phone. He’d have to call Harris, probably get yelled at a little, but there was nothing he could do about it now. 

Holding the phone up to his ear, he looks up when a light blue jeep pulls over on the lane in front of him. Which doesn’t look like it’s really allowed. Derek frowns and immediately sighs when he sees Stiles leaning out of the driver’s window, waving at Derek to get in. And well, he doesn’t really have another option.

Like he said, LA likes to shit on you whenever it can.

Stiles looks as uncomfortable to be in this close proximity to Derek as Derek feels getting in the car with him. Derek nods as a greeting as he climbs into the jeep, falling into the seat with ease and liking the feeling of the old leather against his skin.The jeep is actually rather nice, obviously old and worn but in a loved kind of way. He murmurs out a thanks as a sort of second greeting and Stiles starts the drive without saying anything in return. 

The whole thirty seconds of silence are so tense that even Derek would prefer to start talking, but Stiles apparently couldn’t handle it either and cuts him to it. His mouth is a thin line as he speaks up, keeping his eyes fixed on the traffic in front of them. “So, are you going to tell me why you were such a dick to me and Lydia last weekend?”

Derek bites the inside of his cheek and folds his arms all over each other, also purposely looking anywhere other than Stiles. The dashboard seems like a good place, even if a silly polaroid picture of Stiles and his girlfriend is glued to it. “She was a dick to me first.”

“Oh my god are you five years old?” Stiles splutters out a dry sounding laugh, no real enjoyment hearable in the sound, as he shakes his head. Derek feels his cheeks reddening at Stiles’ fairly accurate reply. He was acting like a child whose favourite toy had been taken away. Which wasn’t too far from the truth. 

He’d just been angry that Stiles had flirted with him whilst he wasn’t even available. It felt like a slap to the face. So many people just flirt with him because he’s famous. No one ever just likes him for him. They like the money. They like the lifestyle. They like being able to tell their friends about him. They like the idea of Derek. They don’t actually like him. He’d somehow allowed himself to believe Stiles might be different. 

So maybe this whole thing was more his own fault than Stiles’. Maybe he had been reading too much into things. Seeing things he wanted to see. He should have known that it wasn’t serious.

He turns in the passenger seat, folding his hands in his lap as he releases a soft sigh. “Look, I’m sorry that I told you to fuck off. I shouldn’t have. Now can we please just keep the rest of filming professional?” 

The sideways glance Stiles gives him shows that his apology is in no way good enough, but then the other man sighs too, apparently deciding to drop it. “Fine.” 

It’s an uncomfortable ten minutes until they get to the set. 

\--

In between the live shows Derek went in to practice with Kira and Parrish. Since the two of them were now officially dating - at least, according to Buzzfeed’s fifteen cute The Voice moments - Derek had thought about maybe getting them a duet on the next show. A little cliché yes, but he thinks it would be nice. Their voices would align nicely as well. 

When he walks over to Harris to suggest it, he stops in his tracks when he sees the man yelling at Caitlin. 

Harris is the worst boss Derek has ever had. When he was fifteen his mom had cut him off from the allowance and Derek had started a job at the local ice cream parlour. His boss there had been a strangely intense man named Finstock - who would yell out random insults whenever something went wrong and would have a constant layer of sweat on his forehead. He’d only paid Derek two dollar an hour, but even he had been a better boss than Harris.

Harris was the biggest dick Derek thinks he’s ever met. The almost cruel way he can bark out orders has been bothering Derek for a while and whilst the director is careful with the tone he uses to Derek, he sees the interns suffer a bit more. He’d always been tempted to say something, but Laura had previously advised against it. 

But now the live shows were in full swing there was a lot of work to be done. A fact that visibly stressed out Harris, which made him verbal. Caitlin was rushing around carrying a heavy looking box filled with sound cables when Harris snapped at her to go do something useful instead - calling her a dumb bitch in the process. 

Derek, who’d obviously been standing near, snapped his head around when he heard it and opened his mouth to defend the poor girl - when someone else already did. 

He shouldn’t have been surprised to see Stiles come over and defend Caitlin against their director, after all it was a very Stiles thing to do. But it still made Derek fill up with a sense of appreciation. Not only at the fact Stiles did stand up for her, but also at the fact he wasn’t taking any more shit from Harris.

Stiles turns to move away from the older man, taking the shaken up Caitlin with him, when he spots Derek. The look Derek gets is so displeased, so annoyed at seeing him, that Derek feels himself crumble inside.

Things had been tense between them ever since the awful afterparty. He knew he shouldn’t have been so harsh to Stiles, that Stiles didn’t deserve that, but he’d just been overwhelmed in his emotions. Derek should have known better than to think Stiles would like him. Lately the more he thinks about the connection he’d been building with Stiles, the more he wonders if he maybe didn’t imagine it all. Maybe Stiles hadn’t been flirting with him, maybe he was like that with everyone. Or maybe it had indeed just been one big joke. Whatever way, Derek should have known it would have been too good to be true. 

The car ride they shared hadn’t really helped much either. Instead of the friendly, slightly flirtatious, banter they’d had before, it now seemed as if they barely tolerated each other. 

Derek knew his side was mostly trying not to show how hurt he actually was, but for Stiles..the dislike seemed to be genuine. Derek tried not to let that fact sting.

\--

“So, you’re moping.” Laura twirls around on the heels of her feet as she moves back onto the couch, balancing the bowl of freshly made popcorn in one hand. 

Derek sends her a roll of his eyes as he moves up to grab the bowl out of her hand before she drops it. “I’m not moping.” 

“Yeah right,” Erica laughs from his left, as she lays sprawled out on his couch with a half-full glass of merlot in her hand, “you’re just locking yourself up in your apartment for no reason.”

“I like being alone,” Derek sends her a pointed glare, “and normal friends who would actually respect my boundaries and my privacy would leave me to do so.”

“Why are you just attacking me?” Erica mocks outrage. “Your sister’s here as well you know.”

Yes. He’s all too aware of that fact with both of them plastered onto his couch like they live there. Derek had always tried to keep the two of them apart as much as possible, having recognized both of them as sources of everything that goes wrong in his life. They’d met before, but he’d never let them alone for long enough for them to really exchange info or anything. Then The Voice had happened and the two had bonded as if they were soulmates that had been separated at birth. The worst thing is, they’d actually arrived here together. Which meant the two were now texting. 

Laura just grins. “Yeah but he’s already accepted he’ll never get rid of me.” 

“Well that’s dumb, I’m here constantly. He should know better by now.”

Derek drags his hands over his face, why did he ever allow these women to have keys to his place?

Erica pokes his side with her big toe and Derek slaps her foot away, sending her an annoyed scowl. She matches his quickly and moves her leg up to press her toe in his face. “You should be a bit more grateful, you know? I had really wild plans tonight but I cancelled because Laura said you were sad.”

The exasperated sigh that comes out of him almost forces him to lie back on the couch. “I’m not sad.”

“Kiara told me you sounded sad last time you called her,” Laura looks at him as if that is proof for everything, “she is always good at the emotional recognition thing.”

Why couldn’t Kiara just be here then? She was less annoying. “God’s sake.”

Erica places her wine glass on the table at his words and her eyes are softer when she looks up at him. “Are you sure everything is okay, Derek?” 

“Yeah Der, you know you can always-”

His voice is loud and sudden when he blurts out the thing that’s been bothering him for two weeks now. “Stiles has a girlfriend!”

And yes..that sounded as pathetic and ridiculous out loud as it did in his head. He turns to his sister to see her attempting to hide her laugh and for once he doesn’t even care. He can’t help but laugh himself as well, hiding his face in his hands. God, he was a mess wasn’t he? Laura seems glad to see it and moves closer to him, still laughing softly. “Oh Der.”

Erica isn’t laughing however, instead sporting a confused frown as she looks at them. “Stiles doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

That quickly shuts the two of them up. Laura seems to look intrigued but Derek rolls his eyes when he sees Erica looks serious. “The pretty redhead is his girlfriend, Erica.”

“Is she?” Erica’s frown deepens and she moves to take a sip of her wine. “I thought Stiles was into dudes.”

Wait. Derek looks at her as he can feel his heart start to beat faster inside his his chest. “What?”

“I’m not too sure but I thought so, I mean he could still be bi.” Erica shrugs as she pulls out her phone. “I’ll text Cora, she’ll know.”

“No!” Derek dives forwards to grab the phone from Erica’s hands, not fully succeeding considering she has one of those extra grip cases around it. “We’re not telling Cora.” 

“Already texted her.” Laura says from his right, waving her phone at him while she smirks. “It’ll be fine, baby bro.”

Erica just snickers and pushes him backwards into the couch, grabbing the remote from the coffee table and picking out some stupid movie for them to watch whilst they wait for Cora to reply. Which knowing Cora, could be a while. Laura poured him an extra large glass of wine and the three of them just got tipsy and watched one of the Scream movies. It felt silly, very high school like, but he found that listening to Erica and Laura gossip about Stiles and Derek’s slightly shameful crush on him was actually kind of nice. 

They’re halfway through the film, none of them really paying attention anyway, when Laura jumps up from the couch. Her eyes are wide as she pops open Cora’s texts and the few seconds of silence leave both him and Erica tensing up.

“He’s single!” The scream sounds almost victorious.

Derek laughs loudly as his arms are suddenly filled up with his sister and best friend and a truly triumphant atmosphere comes over the room. The girls are just giggling, already sushing about possible bridesmaids dresses, and on the screen in front of them someone is getting murdered.

For some reason it’s that moment which gives him some clarity from his wine buzz. Stiles is single. Maybe it hadn’t all been a lie. Maybe Stiles did like him back. He just hopes that with how much of a dick he’s been, Stiles still does. 

God, he’d really been a dick for no reason. Looking up at the screen, where the killer is now looking for another helpless teenage victim, he realizes he needs to apologize. Properly. He needs to fix things. 

\--

After coming out of a judges meeting with Harris and his production assistant - or well it was more of a briefing than it was a meeting, their input was not often listened to - Erica forcefully shoved him towards her team room. Derek gave her an angry look over his shoulder but the blonde just pointed sternly towards the door, mouthing some unkind words his way.

Looking up at the team room, he knows it is time for him to explain things to Stiles. Considering Erica had lost the rest of her team in the live shows, something she was extremely annoyed about, he knew it would just be Stiles in the room. 

Taking a couple of deep breaths and chewing on his lip, it takes him a couple of seconds to step into the room. His eyes immediately find Stiles at the end of the room, pouring himself a glass of water out of the with water and cucumber filled tap. Having heard the door open and probably expecting Erica, the other man turns around with a pleased smile.

Seeing it’s actually Derek made the corners of his lips turn downwards. His eyes darken and he looks annoyed as he carries himself over to the couch. He places his glass of water on the small table in front of him and his eyebrows are high as he looks expectantly at Derek. “Hi?” 

“Hi.” Derek breathes out. Actually being across from Stiles has made him forget everything he’s been chewing on the last few days, especially with the rough irritated tone Stiles is using. Swallowing, Derek notices his hands are shaking and he looks down at his feet as uncertainty overtakes him. He can see Stiles shaking his head from the corner of his eye and dread fills his stomach. Fuck. 

He knows he should have prepared this better. Even though it’s all he’s been thinking about lately, there are so many things he wants to say and ask and he wants to do it properly and not stumble about. Stiles is looking at him with a waiting glare, mouth a thin line, and before Derek can really think his next words through they already leave his lips. “Would you want to get coffee sometime?”

Stiles’ mouth visibly drops open, eyebrows crumpling up in confusion. “Wait, what?” 

Derek shakes his head, fuck this was a bad idea. Why did he even come here? Fucking Erica. And why did he say that as his opening. He bites his lip in his own annoyance. “Nevermind Stiles.”

“No. What the fuck Derek.” Stiles jumps up from the couch, walking his way while fanning out his arms. Annoyance visible in the movement. Eyes sharp and clear. “So you tell me to go fuck myself, then when I try to talk about it you say we should act professional and now you’re asking me out for coffee?”

Derek can feel his cheeks reddening, Stiles summarizing the situation so shortly and adequately makes this all feel simply embarrassing. And it is. This situation is embarrassing. He’d really behaved as a spoiled child. Somehow, he’d allowed himself to think Stiles liked him and then when he found out (falsely apparently) Stiles was taken, he’d just gone to behave like a dick. He’s just so used to people only wanting him for his looks or money or fame, that being a dick is the easiest defense against people attempting to use him. But now that he knows Stiles is single, he has no reason to be that defensive. It could have been real.

But with the way Stiles is currently looking at him, anger filling up his expression and hands balled into fists, he thinks he might have read this whole situation wrong. Maybe Stiles didn’t like him at all. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. We can just ignore this whole thing.”

“Oh no, no, Derek Hale,” Stiles points a finger at him, eyes fiery, “you better explain yourself.”

Sighing slightly, he moves to lean against the wall and folds his arms over each other. Stiles is right. He should explain. “I just..I liked you Stiles. Still do. But then I saw you with that girl, what’s her name..Lydia?”

Stiles nods in confirmation, eyes widening as he realizes what has been going on. “You thought she was my girlfriend?”

Derek nods, shrugging slightly. In his eyes it hadn't been that weird of an assumption. He opens his mouth to say so when Stiles flicks him on the forehead. Rather hard as well. 

“Ow!” He moves to rub his own forehead in a futile attempt to massage some of the pain away and his eyebrows automatically fall into a frown. Stiles is standing right in front of him now, so close that Derek can feel his breath on his skin. His eyes are intense as he scoffs, hitting Derek on his shoulder again, and his voice is loud and filled with disbelief as he speaks up. “Are you fucking kidding me, Derek? That is what turned you into such a prick?” 

“Well,” Derek has to grab Stiles’ hand in order to stop him from slapping him again. “I didn’t know. I suppose I got jealous. I just thought that maybe you’d liked me too and then when I saw you with her all I could think about was how you probably just flirted with me because..” 

“Because what?” Stiles’ voice is still sharp. 

“Because I’m,” Derek sighs, hating having to explain this, “well..me.”

Derek can see the emotions flashing over Stiles’ face and internally he braces himself for what’s about to come. The small, sweet smile he gets instead was not what he was expecting. He frowns.

Stiles takes another step forward, still smiling slightly. “Yes, I did flirt with you because you’re you.” 

At Derek’s increased frown, Stiles huffs out a small understanding breath as he continues. “You might never have noticed me in Beacon Hills, but I noticed you. And yes, I’m not going to lie, when I first came onto the show I figured this was my chance to blatantly flirt with the most attractive guy in the country. Who would pass that chance up? But then again, I already found you the most attractive guy in the country when you would come to pick up Cora after school.” 

Stiles stands in front of him, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, as he lets his honey eyes come up to look at Derek. Derek swallows, the admission of Stiles also having had a crush on him making his cheeks heat up. Especially because it had been on still lanky teenage Derek.

Cautiously, he takes a step forward. Letting his eyes meet with Stiles’. “And now?”

Stiles’ eyes are filled with a sense of nervousness, but he seems to realize something as he swallows, looking back up at Derek sharply. “Now I still like you because you are you.”

Derek moves forward without thinking twice about it, his fingers grabbing a hold of the shirt Stiles is wearing as he places his lips on his. Stiles’ lips are soft and Derek groans at the smooth way that allows for his lips to glide over them. He could hear Stiles’ surprised intake of breath, but it only took him a second before placing his hands on Derek’s back and forcefully pressing his lips onto Derek’s. Derek groans, revealing in the sensation, and parts his lips slightly. Their kiss deepens, their tongues meeting each other and Derek can’t help but tighten the grip he has on Stiles’ shirt. He’s obviously kissed people before, but none had felt like this. Stiles kisses the same as he moves, eagerly and with passion. His tongue is exploring every bit of Derek’s mouth and it makes Derek feel a little overwhelmed. His other hand is moving across Stiles’ back, halting in the small curve above his ass, where he squeezes softly. The moan Stiles releases gets lost within the union of their mouths, but Derek knows it was there. When Stiles’ hand moves up into his hair, pulling lightly, Derek has to step away. The sensation becomes too much. Too good. Too nice. 

Stiles’ pupils are blown wide when he looks up at him and the wet swollen lips he now carries put a pleased smirk on Derek’s face. “So I take it that's a yes to that coffee then?”

“Oh shut up and kiss me, Hale.” 

\-- 

Two weeks -and a lot of kisses - later it’s the finale. Whilst both Kira and Parrish had made it on - Harris sadly not allowing them to do a duet -, Derek was not exactly focused on them. He knew they would both do well, he wasn’t entirely sure if either of them would win but he knows that many record labels would be more than eager to sign either of them. But no, the nervous feeling in his stomach was there because Stiles was on the finale too. And whenever he got to hear Stiles sing, his belly flopped and his heart fluttered. He knew who he would chose to win.

Looks like he picked a favourite after all.

Kira did amazingly well. Derek had forced her a little out of her comfort zone for the finale, which might not have been the nicest thing of him to do but she needed it. Her indie sound had become slightly predictable, so having her perform [_Nirvana_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYfnBsaTVEo) instead was a way to shake things up. And she did so, so well. Derek couldn’t have been happier with the way she’d embraced the song and made it her own. The almost ear deafening applause around him showed him the audience agreed.

Allison’s contestant was next and Derek grimaced at seeing the girl. She was not a bad singer at all, but the whole puke situation had made him automatically dislike her. But he couldn’t deny that she did incredibly well on the stage, taking an [Amy Whinehouse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BgyHWCVg8) song and making it sound fresh. It was nice.

Then Stiles came onto the stage and Derek thinks his heart actually stopped beating for a second. Stiles was wearing ripped jeans and a leather jacket, making him look way too attractive. Derek couldn’t help the images of them making out in their leather jackets backstage, wearing nothing but the smooth material, that were now filling his head. Especially with the way wardrobe had spiked up his hair, pulling it all to one side. Derek wanted to get his hands in there. 

Two guitar players walked up onto the stage, joining the rest of the already present band, and when they started to play Derek’s mouth couldn’t help but fall open. He shot a look over to Erica, who gave him the widest grin she possibly could as she winked his way. 

Stiles hadn’t been allowed to tell him what song he’d be singing, show policy and all that, but Derek would never have expected this. Stiles was singing his song. 

And damn..would Derek ever be able to sing this song again without thinking of the way Stiles was looking right now? Because his boyfriend was staring right at him, eyes teasing and a pleased smirk marking his lips, as he hoarsely sang the lyrics Derek had written about wishing for something real four years ago.

Well he’d found his something real for sure and he was staring right at it. Derek doesn’t think he’s ever been so turned on and emotionally touched at the same time. He’s sure he is grinning like an idiot and for once he doesn’t care if all the cameras zoom in on it. Everyone and their brother can know how he feels about the man in front of him.

When Stiles leaves the stage, Derek almost gets up out his chair to go after him, wanting nothing more than to press him against a wall and take him right now, but he still has Jordan’s performance to go. The lightning of the stage turns a deep blue and abstract stars are being projected onto the ceiling. Parrish is standing in the middle of the stage, bellowing out with his deep voice as he tries to win the audience votes with his version of _[Dancing on my own](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7BgY_wTNZA). _ Whilst Derek’s mind is mostly filled with thoughts of Stiles singing his fucking song, he also feels pride rising in his chest at how well Parrish was doing. It was really good.

After a half hour break, in which he was frustrantingly enough not allowed to leave his stupid chair, the four leftover candidates make it onto the stage as an overly excited Braeden walks onto the stage to present the winner. Derek knew Braeden quite well, she was an old friend and had even sung on one of their singles once, so he was pleased to see the show had flown her in to deliver the final news. With the level of nerves rushing through him, he can’t help but feel awful about the amount of nerves the four people in front of them must be feeling.

When Braeden announces Kira as the 2020 The Voice winner, Derek doesn’t know whether to feel extremely proud of her or disappointed for Stiles. His pride wins briefly as Kira runs over to jump into his arms. He laughs, happily taking her in his arms as she whispers thank you’s into his ear. Smiling, he lets her go and pushes her back onto the now confetti filled stage. There Braeden hands her a bottle of champagne to pop and Parrish wraps his arms around her intimately. It’s so loving that all it can do is widen Derek’s smile.

His smile falters only a little when a disappointed looking Stiles comes down off the stage to wander his way. Derek quickly wraps his arms around him as soon as he can reach him, kissing his temple. “You did great. No worries about not winning. I think your agent will be bombarded with offers from labels that want to sign you. Including my own.” 

Stiles smiles down at him sweetly at the last addition, but his eyes widen as he huffs out a laugh. “I should probably get an agent first.”

Derek laughs freely, his shoulders moving along with the sound, and he tangles his fingers in Stiles’ as he guides them both backstage. “Laura could do it if you’d want her to.” 

“That’d be great,” Stiles smiles, “you don’t think she’d mind?”

“Not at all. Are you sure though? She’s sort of mean.” 

Stiles splutters out a warm laugh and Derek can’t help himself. He moves forwards to plant his lips on Stiles’ once more, letting his hand slide over the leather of the jacket Stiles was wearing. Stiles groans underneath him, eagerly repriocitating, and Derek preens at the feeling. His hand moves up into Stiles’ still gelled up hair and the thought of Stiles singing his song fills up his mind. It had been the hottest thing he’d ever seen and he moans as he deepens their kiss. Stiles flaters, moving backwards until they’re standing against the studio wall. Derek wants nothing more than to take him right here and right now, but he can hear Harris’ sinister voice dooming up behind them so he breaks off their kiss.

Stiles just pouts, letting himself fall backwards in Derek’s arms dramatically. “What a shit day. First I lose the fucking finale and then my boyfriend doesn’t even want to kiss me.”

Derek rolls his eyes and a wide, teasing smirk comes onto his features. “If you wanted to win, maybe you should have picked a better coach.” 

“You can’t keep that over my head forever,” Stiles slaps his chest and Derek smiles at the warm familiar feeling it gives him, “I picked you when it counted, didn’t I?” 

Yes. That he had. 

Just like Derek would always continue to do.

  
  


**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys all enjoyed this weird little fic I randomly starting writing whilst watching The Voice with my mom lol. It kind of grew bigger than expected. Please leave a comment below because that means the world to me!! Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Copyright:  
> The Voice - TALPA Networks  
> The Bad Touch - Bloodhound gang  
> Hold me while you wait - Lewis Capaldi  
> Hometown Glory - Adele  
> Somebody to love - Queen  
> Another love - Tom Odell  
> Blank Space - Taylor Swift  
> Take me to church - Hozier  
> Lithium - Nirvana  
> Tears dry on their own - Amy Whinehouse


End file.
